At a tiny courtyard mosque tucked down a back alley in China’s Muslim heartland, Wang Shouying leads other Muslim women in prayers and chants.

…Religion was banned during Mao Zedong’s radical Cultural Revolution but faith made a comeback in the 1980s, increasing the numbers of Buddhists, Taoists, Muslims and Christians. The communist push for gender equality helped broaden Muslim women’s roles.

China’s women imams are not the equals of male prayer leaders. They do not lead salat ” the five daily prayers considered among the most important Muslim obligations. Those prayers are instead piped via loudspeakers into the female mosques from the male ones nearby.”[Full Text]